I married a stud

Get a load of my sweet lovin'.

Birthday in photos

 

Breakfast in bed.  A rare indulgence to get McDonalds.

 

Opened birthday presents.  Love the crafting supplies, cards, and sweater. Do you see those sheets?  That's part of my big present from Ben.  We went shopping for a QUEEN SIZED bed!  I've been wanting one ever since we left our tiny apartment in Boulder.  Finally now with two employed adults and a growing belly, we're making the upgrade from our cramped full sized bed.  It's really the best present I could imagine getting this year!

We had lunch at Panera Bread.  Sure, not very fancy.  But there aren't any locations in our neighborhood, so it's special to go there.  Plus my favorite sandwich, the Bacon Turkey Bravo, is a double no-no for pregnancy.  I do my best to avoid bacon (nitrates) and cold deli meats (listeria). But hey, it's my birthday!  One little sandwich can't do much harm.  Totally worth it. 

 

Picked out cupcakes for later.  After my cupcake tour of Denver I knew the best place - Lovely Confections!

 

Bought some darling fabric at my favorite craft store.  I squeezed a lot of yarn wistfully.  Ben wisely reminded me of all the beautiful skeins in my basket at home.  But it's hard to resist beautiful yarn when you have spending money in your pocket!  Some other time . . .

Afternoon snack at Sweet Action!  They even had my all time favorite ice cream flavor, Mint Chocolate Chip.  Ben is having Banana Reese's Pieces.  

Then home for a while to start a knitting project (because 2 knit works-in-progress isn't enough) and baby blanket with the flannel I bought.  Amanda came over and we talked choreography until my other friends arrived.  

 

We ordered cheesesteaks, french fries with cheese whiz dipping sauce, chips and soda, and of course the cupcakes!  It was a delicious feast, and a nice change from our usual pizza party.

Miranda surprised me with this gorgeous beret that I had seen her working on.  It's perfect for me and so finely knit! (BTW, if you haven't seen the play kitchen that she made her daughter, click that link straightway and look in amazement!)

Amanda found some great stamps and paper for my crafting supply.  We laughed that we bought each other stamps for our recent birthdays.  As an early nursery gift she found a beautiful pop-up book of The Little Prince. We were talking about using the color palette from that book for the nursery, and maybe some stars and moon imagery.  We already have the book in two English editions and a French.  Now we have this glorious illustrated version too!  Our kid will not be allowed to touch it until 2nd grade.  It's too nice of a book!

Thank you to all my friends and family who called and visited and pitched in to make my day really really great.  I love you all!

28

Thank you for all the birthday well wishes!  I had a wonderful day.  My dear sweet husband took me to all my favorite things and I had a great time visiting with friends tonight.  I took a few pictures to post later showing what we did to celebrate. 

Dreamsicle Pie

I improvised a pie based on a key lime pie recipe.  My friends helped us eat it and they demanded that I write down the recipe to remember.  Sadly I don't have a picture because it was devoured too fast!

Dreamsicle Pie
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup clementine juice
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 2 limes
zest from all the clementines that you squeezed

Combine all the above ingredients in a bowl.  I think it would have stirred smoother if I had blended the sour cream and condensed milk before adding the juice.  Pour the filling into a pre-made graham cracker crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until you see tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface.  (Don't brown it!)  Remove and cool completely.  Let chill in the fridge, preferably overnight.  Slice and serve with whipped cream.

Move your body

My dear sister has optimistically invited me to choreograph some parts of the spring musical.  Optimistic because:
A. work is scheduling me for 4 shifts per week, and because we are short-staffed we often work overtime (like yesterday) and
B. my dancing skills have waned a bit since becoming pregnant.  Or should I say, all skills that involve movement have waned.  Including standing up from couches.  My co-worker saw me struggling to get comfortable in my chair during the 7th hour of Monday's hospital orientation.  "When are you due?" he whispered.  "End of May," I replied.  He ticked the months off his fingers, "Wow, you have a long way to go!"  Yes.  Yes I do.  Thank you for pointing that out for me. Now help me cross my legs.

So with her dear students in mind I summoned all my energy to get to the gym this morning.  Yes, after a 16 hour day with only a 30 minute lunch break, a fitful night's sleep while on call, and waking up with a scratchy throat I exercised.  Because I only blog when I can brag about my awesomeness. (For example, I haven't been sick since January 2009.  I hope this throat scratch blows over).

I like going to the gym because I can spend longer exercising and stretching than I do when I stay home.  The elliptical is also the only form of aerobics I can do without severe leg pain.  I still have bad aches in my gracilis every time I take a step.  But for some reason running on an elliptical is completely painless.  When I got home I stretched a little more.  Molly joined in.

While stretching my quads I looked down at what used to be a flat plane from hip to hip and saw this:

Oh.

Oh my.

I'm in ur living room, eclipsing your sun!

Now if you will excuse me, I think it's almost time for elevenses.

Jem and her buddy

Jem has a couple beagle pals at daycare.  They recently posted a video of her getting good and tired. 

February

I'm so glad it's February.  Good stuff happens:
Superbowl parties (I hate football but love the food and friends)
Oscar parties
My birthday
Valentine's Day
And it's a short month, so it's over before you know it!

I'm now six months pregnant.  Egads.  I feel pretty good except the fitful sleeping, the constant belly poking by the kid, and tearing of my abdominal muscles.  Otherwise no health problems.  I continue to outgrow my clothes and struggle finding comfortable things to wear to work and church. 

I'm knitting like a fiend lately.  I have two projects going for myself, I finished Ben's hat, and I have my eyes on a sweater vest pattern for our little boy.  That's on top of my spinning that I'm still working on.  I'm resisting going to the yarn store as long as possible.

I was on call all weekend and it sucked.  I get so anxious.  I was sure that I would be called in twice, once for a patient in the ICU that the docs told me on Saturday they would want to dialyze on Sunday, and once for one of our regulars who hadn't been in for over a week and a half.  That was on top of our normal flow of emergencies, who often come in Sunday evenings.  It seemed like a sure thing so I was a bundle of nerves all weekend, watching my pager nervously.  Never called me.  Weird.  Instead of being glad that I didn't have to work I'm exhausted from worrying about it.  I really need to get this call mind-set in better control. 

Today was my day off.  Laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and knitting.  Exciting stuff.  I guess I don't have much else to say.  Just checking in to say hi, I suppose.